Just a thought.....

but maybe if people hadn't allowed themselve to be conned into mortgages they couldn't afford there wouldn't be so many foreclosures?

As to whether I'm better off now than I was 5 years ago? Absolutely. I have 2 wonderful children, a house in the country surrounded by farmland and forests, and a job I enjoy. Add to that things that were already there prior to that (wife, family, a knuckleheaded dog), I can't complain.